immigration

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog. In the event you missed the sidebar of information, my name is Clare and I plan on donating $10 to a different non-profit in either Louisiana, Texas or Indiana for the foreseeable future. I have wanted to regularly donate to a non-profit, however, I kept putting it off, donating only when a natural disaster would strike or something particularly nasty was on the horizon. Like many others, I have felt a call to action post-presidential election and thought this would be a great way to learn about some organizations I had no previous knowledge of and support them, too! (Selfishly, it also means I don’t have to pick just one non-profit to support.)

So let me share with you an organization that I just found out about and became my first donation, the Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, TX. Texas holds a special place in my heart as the place where I completed my Master’s degree and was truly challenged as a student and as a professional. I have some close friendships in Texas and wish I were able to visit it more often. (Plus, Whataburger honey butter chicken biscuits, am I right?)

To start off, I found the Las Americas IAC through the Department of Justice’s List of Pro Bono Legal Service Providers. This site provides information for the entire United States, so if you’re interested in contributing funds to aid a particular community then you easily can!

The Las Americas IAC “provid[es] high quality legal representation to immigrants and [advocates] for human rights.” They do so by providing “low-income immigrants with a great variety of low-cost immigration services.” This includes “family-based immigration, victims of crimes services (including domestic violence and human trafficking), [and] asylum.”

But wait, that’s not all!

They also maintain two special projects, which really shows the commitment to their mission and community. Their community outreach program is entitled Las Abejas, or The Honey Bees. These are “outreach workers, or promotoras, all survivors of domestic violence or friends/relatives of survivors” who “speak out in the community about domestic violence and options for victims.” The second project is the Mexican Asylum Project. Just south of El Paso, TX is Ciudad Juárez, where thousands have been killed due to warring drug cartels. Because of this there have been many Mexican asylum seekers who are searching for relief in the United States, many of whom have received threats from cartels or criminal organizations. Las Americas IAC “is committed to the pursuit of justice and the protection of due process for Mexican nationals who have legitimate asylum claims.”

Pretty awesome organization in my book!

While I already have my next non-profit picked out, feel free to comment with any non-profits doing great work that I should add to my list! I prefer donating to non-profits in the three states I listed, but that doesn’t mean I’ll rule out any national/international organizations.